The paper discusses the intrinsic potential offered by classroom interaction for language development. The first part examines several theoretical aspects and characteristics of classroom communication. The second part presents the results of a study which investigates different aspects of classroom interaction in foreign language teaching and the strategies used to encourage classroom communication in the target language. The study, which combines quantitative and qualitative research methods, is based on a survey of Slovene teachers teaching English in primary school. Results suggest that while the respondents are well aware of the benefits of using English in classroom communication, they generally use it in an arbitrary and unsystematic fashion. We would like to argue that we can contribute to the effectiveness of the teaching process by approaching classroom communication with a systematic and consistent format.

The contribution is aimed at study of views and attitudes towards the contents of Technical education from the perspective of elementary school female teachers in Slovakia. Their measurement was carried out by a self-designed questionnaire which was a part of the research methods used (content analysis of curricular documents, international comparison, interview and observation). The originally designed questionnaire included items aimed at finding out views (evaluation of the importance of contents of education) and attitudes (cognitive, affective and conative components) of primary education teachers towards the contents of Technical education in the 4t form of elementary school. The research sample consisted of 334 female teachers. According to results of analysis, teachers considered such themes as traditions and crafts or catering to be more important than themes connected with the use of technical materials and design and they also had more positive attitudes to such themes. Another conclusion is that explanations of the views on the importance of the preferred themes were accounted for mainly by the affective component of teachers’ attitudes.

The aim of the study was to determine the role of structure and functions of ‘hidden’ questions in schoolchildren’s responses to questions posed to them by teachers during lessons. The study sample consisted of 1154 answers of elementary school-age children related to questions formulated by teachers. Observation as well as qualitative and quantitative analysis of data was used. The structure and functions of both answers and questions were determined. The obtained data allowed for specifying the status of a  significant part of primary education. The study revealed an important new area of research associated with the fact of what is happening between the phase of creating and formulating questions by the teacher and the phase of understanding and creating responses by the schoolchild.

Artykuł dotyczy kwestii związanych z wprowadzaniem treści z zakresu edukacji wielokulturowej na lekcjach języka obcego w klasach niższych. Zostały w nim przedstawione praktyczne rozwiązania, dzięki którym nauczyciel może uatrakcyjnić zajęcia, zaciekawić uczniów, a tym samym zachęcić ich do aktywnego udziału. Pozwoli im to na poszerzenie swojej świadomości wielokulturowej, która we współczesnym, zróżnicowanym kulturowo świecie jest podstawą do fascynacji, akceptacji i tolerancji wobec innych kultur.

International data from TIMSS 2015 show a significant negative correlation between the country mean attitude toward mathematics and the mean achievement in mathematics of fourth grade pupils. The aim of the paper is to decide whether it is a statistical artifact or an indication of a real factor operating at the country level. The multilevel regression analysis of the data attests the latter. The factor is hypothetically identified with country typical pressure for knowledge acquisition. Strong pressure is conducive to high achievement but it puts pupils under stress, which lowers the attitude. The reverse holds for weak pressure. Within country, the variability of pressure for knowledge acquisition is restricted, hence pupils may maintain psychological coherence between achievement and attitude.

Results of an analysis of 30 biology classes of integrated sciences taught at primary schools are presented in this article. The research investigated the current state of the use of living things or their substitutes in selected thematic units of the educational area Man and His World. Results were obtained by analysing video recordings via the software Videograph.

Art and School Functioning in the Early Grades

Creativeness of children in early school education as well as the means for its stimulation are important issues both for practitioners and theoreticians of early schooling. It can be observed in everyday conversations between teachers of young children, in curriculum requirements and syllabi for the integrated education as well as some academic and quasi-academic works. The reasons for that are, firstly, the growing awareness of the importance of this sphere of children’s development, and secondly, the fact that early school years are particularly important for the child. Ability to think creatively and solve problems determines success in a variety of situations. For this reason is considered to be a desirable feature, worth developing. The article concerns the relationship between creativity and functioning of children in early childhood education; especially between creative attitude and the educational achievement, as well as social relationship. It contains also an analysis of the cognitive components of the creative process and individual determinants of educational attainment and social development of the child. The author also presented the opportunity to develop creative attitudes of pupils in educational practice in classes 1 – 3. Arts, literary and mathematical education is treated here as a special additional tool to support and intensify this process.

The goal of this article is to publish the results of research on the level of use of (non-)living things in primary science education. The results of the survey carried out at 28 schools in the region of South Bohemia, the Czech Republic, are being discussed in this article. In total, 203 teachers have reported various ways of using objects in their teaching practice in terms of science education at primary level.

The study presents the results of quantitative research aimed at measuring primary education teachers’ job satisfaction (JS), subjectively perceived workload (SPW) and emotional exhaustion (EE). The research sample consisted of 249 teachers. The highest satisfaction was with the work, the highest workload in diagnostics and assessment, and emotional exhaustion was not marked. Correlations confirmed relations between satisfaction and workload (-0.237), satisfaction and emotional exhaustion (-0.463), and workload and emotional exhaustion (0.462). Mediation analysis indicated that satisfaction influenced the relationship between workload and emotional exhaustion. Results point to teachers’ well-being and may help create interventions to improve the working environment. The study is an output of the project VEGA 1/0415/22.

The research deals with the influence of inquiry-based science education (IBSE) implementation into science instruction in the 3rd grade of elementary school on the levels of pupils’ knowledge and science process skills. The research sample consisted of 395 pupils and 170 primary education teachers. The main research method was a pedagogical experiment. Other research methods were non-standardized didactic tests, observation and a questionnaire. The obtained results showed that the pupils’ science process skills increased in the experimental group due to the influence of IBSE. The research results may contribute to the effective implementation of this educational concept in the instruction of natural sciences at elementary schools, with the assumption of increasing pupils’ scientific literacy in international measurements.

In this study, research on whether there is a significant relationship between the dominant types of multiple intelligence and the level of social skills of 4th and 5th year students of primary education has been done In this work, the survey method has been used. A “Multiple Intelligence Monitoring Form” was prepared for each student, and they were asked to do a “Social Skills Survey”. In order to determine the sub-groups and the system validity, a factor analysis and a reliability analysis were applied to the data obtained at the development stage of scale. In the study, for the assessment of the data, frequency and average values; t-test, anova; and Tukey test were used. As regards the seven factors in the social skills survey, significant differences between the dominant multiple intelligence types of students have been detected. The results of this research have shown that the social skills of some students with a certain type of intelligence need to be improved.